2016 Festival Films List

For individual show tickets, click on the film you’d like to see in the film list. That will take you to the ticketing site. Please be sure to choose the correct showtime. As always, tickets are available at the door for each film. Please bring cash or check. Not all locations are able to process credit card transactions.

April and the Extraordinary World

Synopsis: In an alternative world in 1941 France, the country is ruled by steam and Napoleon V, scientists and scholars go missing and the world is bogged down with outdated technology. April and a search party (including Darwin, the talking cat) go to find her parents, two of the missing scientists

“April and the Extraordinary World will have your imagination doing somersaults and cartwheels.”

–Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer

Buffalo

Synopsis: Roger, a lonely cab driver, is diagnosed with a terminal disease. Shaken by the sudden death of his ex-wife, he steals a cab from his job and sets out to find the son he hasn’t seen in more than 30 years. Dir. Michael McCallum. Starring William C. McCallum, Barb Dalman and Erik J. Keener. Winner, Festival Prize for Best Dramatic Feature, at the 2015 Los Angeles DIY Film Festival.

Director Michael McCallum will be present for a Q & A.

Captain Fantastic

Synopsis: In the forests of the Pacific Northwest, a single dad, devoted to raising his six kids with a rigorous physical and intellectual education, is forced to leave his paradise and enter the world, challenging his idea of what it means to be a parent.
Starring Viggo Mortensen. Best Film: Seattle 2016 International Film Festival.

Don't Think Twice

Synopsis: A popular improv group performs at a struggling comedy club in NYC and life is good until one of them gets a big break and the rest realize that they will not be included in the deal. This is an honest and hilarious look into the lives of comics. Starring Keegan-Michael Key,

“Draws its audience in with the promise of laughs, and then reaches into deeper and more rewarding emotional territory from there.”

Synopsis: Story of the relationship between and Amazonian shaman (last survivor of his people) and two scientists who work together over 40 years in search of a sacred healing plant. A feast for the senses, shot in black-and white.

“Blistering and poetic”

–Best foreign film nominee 2016

Everybody Wants Some

Synopsis: The freedom and responsibility of college life are experienced by a team of young baseball players. Richard Linklater directs a talented cast in this sweetly nostalgic story with a “killer classic rock” soundtrack.

“Another love letter to the magic hour of adolescence from director Richard Linklater.”

Synopsis: Drama about an unloved 13 year old boy whom nobody wants until someone says, “yes I’ll love him”. He and his foster uncle become subjects of a manhunt after they go missing in the wild New Zealand bush. Starring Sam Neill and Julian Dennison. Audience award winner: Edinburgh Film Festival

“Has heart and is genuinely funny.”

–New York Times

The lady in the van

Synopsis: Author and playwright Alan Bennett befriends Mary Shepherd, a homeless woman, and allows her to park her van in his driveway. She eventually stays there for 15 years. He finds out that she is Margaret Fairchild, student of a famous pianist, who leads a relatively checkered life. A good cast is headed by Maggie Smith and Jim Broadbent as well as Alex Jennings as Alan Bennett.

“The joy of the film comes in watching Smith work her magic.”

–Linda Barnard, Toronto Star

Love & friendship

Synopsis: Lady Susan Vernon comes to her in-laws' estate to give rumors of her many dalliances a chance to die down. While she is there, she goes husband hunting for herself and her reluctant daughter. Based on Lady Susan by Jane Austen. Starring Kate Beckinsale.

“The snappy dialogue... rewards a finely tuned ear and will thrill all lovers of language.”

–Adam Graham, Detroit News

A Man Called ove

Synopsis: Curmudgeonly widower Ove Lindahl is focused on reuniting with his recently deceased wife Sonja. The best way to achieve that is by ending his life. But when you are as inept at suicide as Ove, Sonja might have a long wait ahead. A couple of kids, an Iranian immigrant and a shaggy cat wear down his resistance.

Opening reception prior to film with book/film discussion following the show.

“Touching comic crowd pleaser.”

–Variety

The man who knew infinity

Synopsis: Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) portrays mathematician Srinivasa Ramanijan who, after growing up poor in India, earns admittance to Cambridge University during WWI where he becomes a mathematics pioneer under his mentor, played by Jeremy Irons.

“Outshines Good Will Hunting in almost every way”

–London Mathematics Society

Microbe and gasoline

Synopsis: Microbe, a shy, aspiring artist has trouble making friends at school, until he meets Gasoline, a like-minded outcast. Together they hatch a plan to build a car and spend their summer on an epic road trip across France. Director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). Starring Audrey Tautou, Theophile Barquet and Ange Dargent.

“Gondry beings a sense of heartfelt nostalgia, pathos, and humor to this portrait of a short, unique adolescent moment.”

Synopsis: On a summer day, in a village in Turkey, five girls walking home from school engage in innocent banter with some boys. As a result of these actions, the girl's home is changed into a prison, homemaking classes take the place of schoolwork. Marriages are arranged. The sisters, who all have a passion for freedom, look for ways to get around the new regime.

“Part of a welcome international wave of films made by women directors that focus on girls growing up in worlds of men - and on what they look like when no one's looking.”

Synopsis: Pelé, a kid from the slums of Sao Paolo, was so poor he couldn't afford his own soccer ball. The chronicle of his meteoric rise from scrubbing floors to leading the Brazilian national team to its first World Cup victory at age 17 is one of the greatest sports stories of the 20th Century.

Synopsis: In a remote Icelandic farming valley, two brothers who haven’t spoken in 40 years have to come together to save what is dearest to them both - their sheep. Award winner: Cannes Festival 2015.

“Involving and curiously exciting.”

–Roger Ebert.com

Sing Street

Synopsis: A boy growing up in Dublin in the 1980’s escapes his strained family life by starting a band to impress the mysterious girl he likes. Dir. John Carney. Starring Ferdio Walsh-Peelo, Lucy Boyton and Aiden Gillen.

“With its intriguing characters and exhilarating music, Sing Street is the best film about being young, gifted, and Irish since The Commitments.”

Land Grab

Synopsis: Story of an eccentric finance mogul who dreams of investing $30 million to create the world’s largest urban farm in one of Detroit’s most economically depressed neighborhoods. The project has strong backers and equally strong critics.

Landfill harmonic

Synopsis: The Recycled Orchestra, made up of materials save from the trash heap, is the subject of this film which highlights two vital concerns of our time: poverty and pollution. Following the lives of a garbage picker, a music teacher and a group of children from a Paraguayan slum, we watch them create instruments and music. When their story becomes known, they go on tour and fulfill a dream: to play with heavy metal band, Megadeth.

Synopsis: A coming of age story about a boy and his family who overcame great challenges by turning Disney animated movies into a language to express love, loss, kinship, and brotherhood. Dir. Roger Ross Williams. 2016 Sundance Film Festival winner for Best Director.

“It’s the best Disney movie that Disney didn’t make.”

–Eric Kohn, indieWIRE

Phil's Camino

Synopsis:A free spirit wants to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain, while facing Stage 4 cancer in his hometown of Seattle. Told he shouldn’t do the walk, he builds his own camino in the forest behind his house and ends up walking the same 500 mile distance. Directors: Annie O’Neil. Audience Award winner, Palm Springs International Short Film Festival 2016.

A Skype conversation with the Director is planned for the Friday show.

Our last tango

Synopsis: Maria Rego and Juan Carlos Copes met as teenagers and were dance partners for almost 50 years. They tell their story to a group of young tango dancers and choreographers who turn their memories into tango-choreographies.

“Our Last Tango" is a combination of things, all fascinating...”

–Andy Webster. NY Times

Taxi Tehran

Synopsis: The celebrated director Jafar Panahi is banned from making movies by the Iranian government. He poses as a taxi driver and makes a movie about his country’s social challenges. Director: Jafar Panahi

“A film of quiet and profound outrage, laughing on the surface, but howling in anger just beneath.”

–Scott Foundas, Variety

Weiner

Synopsis: Former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner’s (D-NY) run for mayor of New York City is detailed in this behind-the-scenes film. A widely publicized new sexting scandal during the race ruins his attempt at a political comeback.

“Infuriating and depressing but rivetingly watchable”

–NYTimes
Winner Grand Jury Prize- Sundance 2016

The woman with the five elephants

Synopsis: 65 years after being imprisoned in a German camp during World War II, Svetlana Gier is now a renowned translator of the great works of Dostoevsky. For the first time in years, she returns to her hometown of Kiev with her granddaughter. Director: Vadim Jendreyko.

“Jendreyko elegantly sketches out the details of his subject's life and the historical events surrounding her coming of age out of which emerges a fascinating subtext about the malleable powers of language.”